


Luz Mala

by iconoclastic04



Category: Danny Phantom
Genre: Body Horror, Character Death, Ectober Week 2015, Gen, Ghost Lights, Trans Male Character
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-25
Updated: 2015-10-25
Packaged: 2018-04-28 03:45:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,638
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5076577
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/iconoclastic04/pseuds/iconoclastic04
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <em>Luz Mala: meaning "evil light" in Argentina and some parts of South America. They are believed to be wandering, malevolent ghosts.</em>
</p>
<p>Three people in Amity Park are dead, and Danny’s had enough.</p>
<p>Ectober Week 2015 Day One: Ghost Lights</p>
            </blockquote>





	Luz Mala

**Author's Note:**

> this took so long to write for some reason  
> anyway happy ectober

It’s Thursday. There’s a quiz in English, the cafeteria is serving meatloaf again, and the third body this week was found last night. This time, it was a junior named Brittany Fleming. On Tuesday it was a sophomore named Ricky Marsh. Last Friday…well, police are almost positive it was Isabel Gibson.

Lancer hands the quiz out silently. Slowly, the class picks up their pencils and starts bubbling in answers. It’s ironic, Danny thinks dimly, that they’re studying Macbeth in the midst of a ghostly murder spree.

The school is eerily quiet for the whole day. Ghost attacks have become commonplace, but murder? People they know—knew—are dead. And Danny Phantom, town hero, didn’t save them.

During lunch, hushed whispers circulate throughout the school. Whispers that Phantom has abandoned Amity Park, even though he was seen battling Skulker just last night. (Last night when Brittany was killed.) Whispers that he doesn’t really care about the citizens of Amity Park, just about fighting the ghosts that terrorize it. (Brittany is dead.) Whispers that maybe Phantom was the one who did it, that he’s the killer, the murderer—

He grips his pencil so hard it snaps. Three people are dead. He’s going after that thing tonight; it’s time to stop this.

He’s pretty sure it’s a ghost, something that lives in the woods behind the school. After all, that’s where all three bodies were found, at the bottom of a cliff or drowned in a bog or dashed against some rocks at the base of a waterfall. There are rumors of a serial killer, but in Amity Park? As if. Even if it was, Danny’s going to find that bastard and give them hell. He has had enough.

“Danny!” Sam hisses. He looks up, disoriented. Where is he? Cafeteria. Right. Meatloaf. Unsettling quiet. “Could you cool it with the scary eyes? Somebody’s going to notice!”

He blinks. Was he…? “Sorry,” he whispers back, focusing on turning his eyes from radioactive green back to their normal blue. “I just…I was thinking.”

“About Brittany?” Sam asks. 

Danny nods. “I’m going to go after that thing tonight,” he says. 

Next to him, Tucker swallows a mouthful of meatloaf. “Want us to come with?” he asks.

“No thanks, guys,” Danny replies. “I mean, this is serious. This ghost—I can’t let you get hurt.”

“We want to help, Danny,” Sam says, reaching across the table and placing her hand on his.

“I know,” Danny says. Images flicker through his mind—Sam, her lungs filled with mud and her sunken face caked in dirt. Tucker, his legs and arms twisted grotesquely, unseeing eyes gazing down at his torn-open ribcage. 

He pushes his plate away. Suddenly, he’s not so hungry anymore.

###

That night isn’t a full moon. It’d fit the mood better if it was, Danny thinks as he leans out his window. Aren’t creepy ghost hunts supposed to happen when there’s a full moon? He sighs, blowing his bangs out of his eyes.

Whatever. The moon isn’t cooperating, what else is new? He steps back into his room, and a flash of light later, Phantom jets out of the window.

The flight to the woods behind the school is only about five minutes long, but Danny tries his best to enjoy every second of it. The cool air whipping against his face makes him more alert than usual, and the crisp scent of dying leaves leaves a lazy smile on his face. Was this what Brittany, Ricky, and Isabel felt right before they died?

When he lands on the outskirts of the forest, he has a moment of doubt. The woods practically scream “danger.” Thickets of brambles line the floor, and not even the meager moonlight makes it through the dense canopy of leaves. Taking a deep breath, Danny turns himself intangible and steps into the forest.

He glides along for several minutes without noticing anything unusual. It’s not like he has to worry about getting lost; after all, he can just fly straight up if he needs to. Despite that, every tree looks the same, each branch twisting and turning in the same menacing way. An owl hoots and he jumps.

After fifteen minutes, he’s starting to wonder if he’s going to see anything. He floats up to a tree branch and perches lightly on it. He can just wait here, right? See if anything weird happens.

Minutes pass, and Danny’s almost dozed off when a crashing in the undergrowth jolts him awake. He peers down, scanning the forest floor. Nothing…nothing…wait, what was that?

It’s…a kid? A teenager. Someone he knows. It’s this girl he recognizes from his trig class. She sits two seats to the left and in front of him, and in all honesty she’s pretty cute. Currently, she’s crashing through the brush, making a ridiculous amount of noise. She also appears to be following something. She couldn’t be the killer, could she? Why is she even here?

Danny figures it’s time he makes an appearance. He jumps down from the tree and floats backwards next to her. “Hi,” he says, sticking out his hand. “Danny Phantom.”

She screams and jumps backwards. “Holy shit,” she breathes. “You scared the hell out of me.”

Danny’s mouth twitches upwards. “Well, I am a ghost.” He’s still holding his hand out.

The girl reaches out and shakes it cautiously. “I’m Nizhoni,” she says. “What are you doing out here, Phantom?”

“Catching a ghost,” Danny replies. She looks at him blankly. “You’ve heard about the deaths of Ricky and Brit—uh, I mean, those students at Casper High?”

Nizhoni nods. “Yeah,” she says. “I had classes with some of them.”

“I’m pretty sure it was a ghost that killed them,” Danny says simply. “And I’m going to catch it.” He looks at her sharply. “What are you doing out here?”

She grins sheepishly. “Uh, a couple of my friends dared me to spend the night here. They said they’d give me $500 if I made it through the night.”

Danny stares at her. “You know those people died out here, right?”

“Five hundred dollars!” Nizhoni replies. “Besides, I ain’t afraid of no ghost.” She chuckles a bit at her reference.

Danny doesn’t. He’s busy staring ahead. About five hundred feet in front of them is a small blue light, floating at about eye level. It seems to be waiting for them. “Do you see that?” he asks.

Nizhoni’s face lights up. “Yeah!” she exclaims. “I was following it when you appeared. C’mon, let’s see where it wants us to go!”

“I don’t know if that’s such a good idea,” Danny starts, but Nizhoni’s already shooting off through the underbrush. Groaning to himself, he follows her. After all, it’s not like he’s got other plans for the night. Chasing after a tiny, harmless ghost with a pretty girl is definitely better than getting pummeled by a ghost who apparently likes to feed on teenagers. And really, he’s got all night to get beat up. Will it matter if it’s now or two hours later?

After almost half an hour of crashing fruitlessly through the woods, Danny is starting to get fed up. Every time they get somewhat close to the ghost, it disappears, only to reappear again a few hundred feet away. He’s perfectly fine leaving the weird light-ghost alone and continuing his search for the one that’s actually killing people, but Nizhoni refuses to stop, her eyes fixed on the ghost.

“Nizhoni, seriously, can’t we just stop following this thing?” Danny groans. He’s so used to her ignoring him that when she actually does stop he almost floats into her, catching himself just in time. “Nizhoni?”

She turns to face him, her eyes emanating the same soft blue light as the ghost up ahead. “It’s so beautiful, Phantom,” she says. “I’m almost there. Once I get to it, everything will be fixed. I’m almost there…” She trails off, staring vacantly ahead. 

Danny might not be the sharpest kid on the block, but he knows hypnosis when he sees it. It’s a rare talent, and ghosts that can do it are generally the kind you want to avoid. Gently, he reaches out and shakes Nizhoni on the shoulder. “Snap out of it,” he murmurs. “ Nizhoni.” She ignores him. He shakes her harder. Still no reaction.

Suddenly, she starts sprinting. How she manages to go as fast as she does through the dense forest is a mystery to Danny, but she’s headed straight for the blue light and he needs to catch her before she gets to it and—

He watches in horror as Nizhoni sprints straight over the edge of a cliff.

As soon as her feet leave the forest floor, the blue light fades from her eyes. Danny stares as realization dawns on her face, then terror, and then she’s gone.

Instinct kicks in before he can think. He dives over the cliff edge, straightening his body out to minimize air resistance, and flies as hard as he can towards Nizhoni. Her body cracks limply against the rocks and oh no, oh god, she can’t just have—

She’s not dead. When he gets close, he can feel the fear radiating off her in waves. It’s like a drug, he thinks dimly. Like you’re dying of thirst in the desert and someone hands you a glass of ice water. Nizhoni’s fear would be so easy to reach out, to grab a hold of and pull it out of her. But that would kill her, especially after the fall she just took, so he just reaches down and grabs her, and then they’re soaring up, up, up until he lands gently on the ground and sets her down beside him. She’s trembling, eyes blown wide and heart racing. “God, I—” she stammers. “I—I don’t know what came over me. I don’t even remember anything—one minute I was in the forest with you, the next I was just…falling.”

“Ghost hypnosis,” Danny answers shortly. “That little guy you were following? Not so little.”

Suddenly, puzzle pieces click together in his mind. Isabel Gibson, dead at the bottom of a cliff. Ricky Marsh, suffocated in a bog. Brittany Fleming, strewn over rocks at the bottom of a waterfall in the woods. Nizhoni’s eyes, glowing blue before she jumped off the cliff. Her fear coming off in almost palpable waves. The ghost ahead of them, disappearing whenever they got close.

Oh, shit.

“Nizhoni, listen to me,” Danny says urgently. “We have to get out of these woods. That ghost, the one we were following, it’s the same one that killed those people.” He glances behind him. The blue light is still there, hovering in midair, but it’s gotten brighter. Danny swears he can see a twisting mockery of a mouth, filled with sharp, needly teeth, behind the bright light. “And I don’t think it’s happy that I saved you.”

Nizhoni twists around, her eyes widening. Her expression of horror is suddenly bathed in bright blue light. Danny looks behind him and almost screams. The light is almost impossibly bright. Bones shine black through the twisting blue ectoplasm in a structure which could be considered vaguely humanoid. The creature’s skull grows larger, eyes sparking menacingly. The jaw opens and stretches, impossibly wide.

Danny grabs Nizhoni around the waist and takes off flying. Whatever the hell this thing is, he doesn’t want to fight it with an innocent person around.

Nizhoni screams as they leave the ground, wrapping her arms around Danny’s shoulders. “What the hell is that?”

Danny goes intangible and shoots through several trees. “I don’t know,” he says, dodging a branch. “I thought it was harmless when you were following it, but apparently not!”

A string of ectoplasm wraps itself around his ankle. He tries to slip out of it, but can’t. He and Nizhoni crash to the ground. 

She groans beneath him. He rolls over and sits up, tugging at the rope wound tightly around his ankle. His fingers slip off of it, almost like it’s coated in oil. Some other weird power this ghost has, he’d guess. Gritting his teeth, he gathers a shard of ice in his hand and slides it between his ankle and the rope. 

It won’t cut through. Well, there goes that idea.

Tossing the ice to the side, Danny gathers up an ectoblast in the palm of his hand, aims at the rope a few feet away on the ground, and fires. Next to him, Nizhoni jumps. “A little warning next time, Phantom?” she mumbles. “For the falling and the explosions.”

“Sorry,” Danny mutters. He fumbles for the rope. It’s singed a bit, but otherwise fine. “What even is this stuff?” He still can’t quite manage to get ahold of it.

“We need to keep moving,” Nizhoni says, standing up and brushing her hands on her pants. “We didn’t get that far.”

Danny stands up, floating a bit, and points silently at the ectoplasmic rope still tied around his ankle.

Nizhoni exhales sharply. “What the fuck, Phantom? Aren’t you supposed to be a hero? Heroes don’t get trapped within the first five seconds of a fight. Or the first five seconds of running away, either.” She glares at him. 

“Look, I’m sorry, okay?” Danny snaps. “I’m trying my best here. After all, I’m only—” He barely stops himself before he can say human. “Nevermind. The point is, I can’t get this thing off, and as long as it’s on me, that thing can track us.”

“Oh my god, we’re going to die here if you don’t stop being so freaking useless. Let me try,” Nizhoni says, bending over and grabbing his ankle. Danny rolls his eyes, but raises his foot up to allow her better access. Her fingers feel like fire, even through the material of his jumpsuit.

Within seconds, she’s standing up, holding the now-untied ectoplasm strand up and raising an eyebrow.

“Wha—but—I—it wouldn’t—!” Danny sputters. 

“Must be some ghost thing,” Nizhoni mutters, and begins walking. “Whatever. I’m getting the hell out of here. And you’re not carrying me this time.”

Danny drifts after her, floating over the brambles and underbrush that she has to fight her way through. He’s not sure how she sees anything, because even with the light from the moon and his slight glow, there’s not much light. “Nizhoni, do you know where you’re going?” he asks.

She turns and glares at him over her shoulder. “Out of here.”

“Right, but…which way is out?”

“Well,” she says carefully, “if I keep going in one direction for long enough, I’ll hit the edge.”

Danny wrinkles his nose. “Look, it’d be a lot simpler if I could just fly us out.”

“No!” she snaps. “First I was hypnotized by that thing, and then you freaking dropped me. I’m getting out of here by myself.”

Before Danny can reply, there’s a loud growl behind them. Both of their heads whip around.

Crouched in the trees is the creature that was chasing them. It’s nowhere close to a tiny glowing light anymore; instead it’s a massive, twisting mess of tentacles and teeth and miscellaneous limbs. A giant red eye in the center blinks slowly at them, and a split in its flesh stretches wide, revealing rows of sharp, polished teeth. It could be a smile but Danny is honestly more worried that it’s going to eat them with it. “Run!” he screeches, and then he and Nizhoni are scrambling to their feet and sprinting. The ghost follows them, oozing through the trees like pancake batter. Danny’s so freaked out that he doesn’t even realize he’s running instead of flying until his foot catches in a root and he pitches forward, slamming into a tree.

Nizhoni stumbles to a stop a few feet ahead of him. “Phantom!” she cries.

“I’m fine!” Danny shouts, catching himself. “Go!” She takes off. He follows, remembering to fly this time. He hovers beside her as she runs. “Please, Nizhoni, just let me fly us out of here, I promise I won’t drop you—”

She just glares at him. “Phantom, I was dared to spend a night out here, and dammit, I’m gonna do it!”

“Oh my god! Is that—” Danny waves a hand at the bulbous glowing mass still following them. “—really worth five hundred dollars?”

She doesn’t answer, just furrows her brow and runs faster. Sighing, Danny follows. They run for a long time—ten minutes? Fifteen? He wonders how she’s managed to keep going for this long. Even he’s getting tired. Sam is right; he really needs to work on his endurance. It’s just that doing exercise in a binder is terrible and awful and he really tries to avoid it unless it’s necessary….

He’s about five seconds away from picking Nizhoni up and flying away in spite of her stupid dare when she screeches to a halt. He bumps into her before he can really process why she stopped.

He looks up.

He really, really wishes he hadn’t.

Either they somehow got turned around or that thing is absolutely gigantic, because they’re now surrounded on three sides by a tangled mess of blue ectoplasm, mangled limbs and eyes sticking out of it at grotesque angles. Danny whirls around, but before he can even take a step towards the last remaining open area the two sides of the ghost meet and merge together. They’re trapped. In a donut made of ghost and body parts. Danny’s so freaked out he can’t even think of a pun.

Next to him, Nizhoni grabs his wrist. “I changed my mind about flying,” she says.

He doesn’t hesitate. He grabs her around the waist and rockets up through the tunnel the ghost has formed. Around them, half-formed hands reach out and try to grab them. Nizhoni cringes away as they trail over her arms, legs, hair.

Strands of ectoplasm cling to his hair and jumpsuit, miscellaneous eyes blinking at them as they pass. It’s all he can do to keep flying as the ghost tightens around them, the fleshy walls growing closer and closer.

After what feels like forever but is probably only a few seconds, he can see the end—the literal light at the end of the tunnel. The moonlight shines dimly through the treetops. He bursts through the branches at the top of the tree into the clear night air.

We made it, he thinks, then, oh, fuck, as a thick, ectoplasmic tentacle wraps around his leg. 

“Oh, my god,” Nizhoni whispers. “We’re going to die.”

A thought flickers in the back of his mind. The same ectoplasm wrapped around his ankle. His fingers slipping off of it, but Nizhoni’s untying it in a matter of seconds. He hangs in midair for a minute, straining. “Nizhoni, I need you to close your eyes for a minute.”

“What?” she asks. “Why?”

“Just trust me, please,” Danny grunts. “I can’t hold on much longer.” Sweat beads on his forehead. He slips down a few inches. He knows he can’t keep them in the air for more than a few seconds; the ghost pulling them down is incredibly strong.

“Fine,” she says, and Danny doesn’t even check to make sure she actually closed her eyes before he’s transforming, back into Fenton, who while significantly worse at flying can slip through the ghost’s weird ectoplasm rope like no tomorrow. Finally his foot is free, and in a flash he transforms back and flies the hell out of there.

Nizhoni opens her eyes when she feels the wind on her face. She turns to look at him. She opens her mouth, about to say something, but instead turns away.

They fly back to Amity Park in silence. 

###

Danny limps into school the next morning. After he’d dropped Nizhoni off at the Casper High parking lot, he’d flown back into the woods, tracked down the ghost, and fought it properly. He’s pretty sure at least three of his ribs are cracked, and his entire face is covered in concealer to hide the green bruises spreading across his cheekbones.

“Did you get it?” Sam asks. 

Danny nods tiredly. “Yeah. It’s dead.”

“Like, actually dead? Not-coming-back-ever dead?” Tucker asks.

“Yeah.”

Sam and Tucker are both silent for a minute. “Danny, what happened?”

Danny swallows. He remembers fangs and glowing green eyes and ectoplasm splattered like blood across the forest floor. He remembers cutting his lip open with teeth that reach to his chin, licking the blood off his fingers as he crouches over the miscellaneous body parts and swiftly dissolving goop of the ghost that possessed Nizhoni. “I’d rather not think about it.”

Sam rubs his arm reassuringly, but all he can think of is Nizhoni’s face, terrified, as she falls backwards towards nothing at all.

She walks into class then, looking tired and with a particularly nasty gash on the side of her face. Danny starts and leans forward, desperately trying to make eye contact, but she won’t even look at him. Oh, right. She was saved by Phantom last night, not Fenton. “Danny,” Sam whispers behind him. “What’s wrong? You’re spacing out.”

Their teacher walks in, setting a stack of tests on the desk and glaring over the tired forms of first-period trig. Danny’s still staring at Nizhoni, willing her to look over towards him.

Finally, slowly, she turns her head. She looks at him, her gaze hard and accusatory, and Danny almost phases through his chair in shock.

“We’re very sorry to announce the death of another one of our students last night,” the teacher says. “Nizhoni Harris was a friend to us all….”

Nizhoni, two seats to the left in front of him, tilts her head and bares a mouth full of sharp, needle-like teeth. Her eyes are glowing blue.

**Author's Note:**

> come say hi on [tumblr!](http://robotbeowulf.tumblr.com)


End file.
